Lindsay Rosenwald and the biotechnology

American doctor Lindsay Rosenwald has been a prolific founder of development stage biotech companies.

According to Wikipedia, Rosenwald has started many biotechnology companies who have over 100 licensed clinical-stage medicines. Many of those drugs were approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as well as in foreign countries. One medicine was approved for Acute promyelocytic leukemia, a routinely fatal disease, that has cured many thousands of incurable patients over the last decade and continues that achievement today, marking a change to how this disease is treated. Another cancer drug developed by one of his start-up companies is today a near billion dollar-selling drug for prostate cancer. Additionally, that company was the first company to be acquired for approximately $1 billion after only phase 2 studies. Other drugs approved by the United States and many other countries include drugs for schizophrenia, fibromyalgia, obesity, influenza, and infant respiratory distress syndrome.

Biotechnology is “any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific use” (UN Convention on Biological Diversity).

Even though for some of us the word is really new, biotechnology has been here for over 100 years. The term was coined in 1919 by Hungarian engineer Karl Ereky and the technology was used in agriculture, medicine and of course food production. In the last century the technology was developed to include genomics, recombinant gene technologies, applied immunology, and development of pharmaceutical therapies and diagnostic tests.

Because the activity is controversial and dangerous, there are some regulations. At the begining, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was the US organism who controlled the activity in the biotechology field. Today, the rules are made by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that regulates plant pests and medical preparation from living organisms, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that regulates pesticides and herbicides, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which ensures that the food and drug products are safe and effective.

It is worth mentioning that the FDA’s activity was seriously discussed on various ocazions. They are suspected to be hand in hand with the major GMO companies like Monsanto.

The medicines released by the American doctor and founder Lindsay Rosenwald were FDA approved so, they should be safe. Most of the drugs made by the companies of Linday Rosenwald are potential cancer treatment.